Her cheeks warmed. She had never been called smoky or sensual—not that it would have been at all appropriate. But she found that it suited her sensibilities just fine. She smoothed her fingers down the low-cut dress and watched the man across from her.
Noble had changed into an outfit fit for a laborer. It was too big for him, hanging from his defined edges, but she had a feeling it was that way on purpose. He had another cap on, this one set at a jaunty angle. It would allow him to hide his eye color mostly in the shadows. His cheekbones appeared flatter. She hadn’t been paying close attention, but he’d done something with the kohl. He was still going to turn women’s heads, but in the guise of a rakish longshoreman instead.
He looked like the kind of man ladies had strict orders never to talk to.
The carriage turned a corner. They had to be close. “Remember that we are just here to soak up information and to see which patrollers and night watchmen are friendly and which are not. If the chance comes to ask questions, or the topic of the murderer is broached by someone else, you have to be enamored with everything about the murders and murderer. Like one of the women who attend every execution and then touches herself on the spot.”
Her hand holding the mirror dropped into her lap as she stared at him. “Pardon me?”
He waved her off. “Just be enamored and try not to act too bright. I know it will be difficult for you.”
She held her tongue at his obvious amusement and stowed the mirror without looking at him. She decided to change the subject. “Does Alcroft owe you favors as well?”
“No. We trade them as a matter of course, but I’ve never done a job for Alcroft in the way I’m doing this one for you. Alcroft’s jobs are free.”
“So once you become friends with someone, you are free to hire?”
“Are you looking to become my friend, Marietta?” He looked amused. He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Alcroft enjoys intrigue and gossip. So does Jeremy. Those two will try to get under foot. Shoo them away if they bother you. They know how I work and will push as much as they can to be included, like toddlers trying to find their limits, even though they know better.”
They pulled up on a street one over from Greville Street and the White Stag. They couldn’t very well exit an expensive carriage in front of the pub looking as they were currently dressed. Noble spoke with his driver for a minute.
Marietta took a deep breath.
He slipped an arm around her shoulder and she leaned against him as they walked around the corner toward the pub. The pub where Kenny had been arrested. She suddenly had a horrible thought.
“What if Mr. Penner is here tonight?”
“I made him an appointment to receive a certificate of merit from a group in Windsor today. Festivities to last through the night. He’ll never make it back in time to visit the pub this eve.”
Relief rushed through her, and she had to admire Noble’s forethought. She wondered again why he was doing this. Why he took cases like hers where he wouldn’t get paid. Unpaid cases where he would have a toehold into a future spot ripe for favors, she could understand. Hers, she couldn’t.
They entered the pub and Marietta was surprised to see the number of people inside. She didn’t realize so many people could fit in one space. No wonder Kenny had been drawn here. She was jostled and Noble pulled her more securely against his side, fitting her under his warm arm.
Sheer luck found them next to a table that was abandoned just as they walked by it. It wasn’t situated in the best spot in the room, out in front as it was, but it was a place to hunker down and see how the different groups interacted in the pub. Thankfully, even though it was far from a corner, it was against a wall. Noble pulled one chair next to the other so they were both sitting side by side facing outward.
He leaned toward her and tipped her chin up. “Are you ready, Marietta?”
She swallowed. Kenny. She was doing this for Kenny. No one would recognize her here. She had no future to preserve now. The cacophony of the pub blurred into the steady beat of her heart. She had expected it to be racing, but it was just beat, beat, beating in expectation.
She gave a jerky nod.
“Give me a smile.” His fingers traced a line from her jaw to the back of her neck and down around her collarbone. His fingertips were light and comforting, and at the same time they made her body lean into his for more.
She could almost find it laughable that he had called her smoky and sensual when it was obvious those were qualitiesheexuded. His eyes pinned hers and the only things she could think about were more S words like stunning, sexual and sinful, strong and steadfast. The last one would have provoked more thought from her if Noble hadn’t all of a sudden laughed lightly.
His eyes changed to a more roguish bent. “I’m forgetting myself. These aren’t the actions I’m supposed to be taking dressed as I am.”
His hand abruptly switched to her thigh and started stroking her leg. He caught her body’s jump beneath his fingertips and held her in place.
“Come now, luv, we are playing a part remember?”
Her smile strained as his fingers traced a pattern up and down her thigh, working her dress up as he went. Her mind rebelled as her ankles came into view. Her calves. The bottoms of her knees. His fingertips dipped under the material and between her knees, and she slapped his hand in instinctive reaction, then pushed her dress back down.
He gave a raucous laugh, the sound foreign to her ears and entirely unnatural on him, then pulled her in for a hard kiss that left her dazed. Instead of the subtle surrender of his earlier sensual domination, this one was brusque, harsher, and lacking in any type of subtlety. But even though he was obviously doing this as a way to create a character, his actions still sent her heart racing and her cheeks warming. She thought it might be distinctly impossible for the man to kiss badly. Not that she had much experience, but sometimes intuition never lied.
There were parts of this role that were really not difficult to participate in at all.
When she looked up, a waitress stood across the table. Marietta was impressed with how fast she had gotten through the mob. The woman wore an outfit similar to her own, her body packed tightly into it, her ample bosom pushing out the bodice, but her face was hard, the lines around her eyes and mouth strictly set.
